Surviving in TimeLine SAO
by elmatto2
Summary: The Thande institute of TL A has recovered the Nervegear from TL SAO and has had the bright idea of testing it on one of its rising field agents in training. So when he gets trapped in SAO, his only option is to fight his way out, using his training along with everyone he meets along the way. But when the game begins to change to respond to him, what effects will this have?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:**

 **This is a prequel to the Life is in the Multiverse Story that I am writing. I may release this concurrently or after, but anyway….its a Sword art online fanfic since I like the idea of writing one, and I feel it could work well with my OC entering the online world.**

 **The OC is 15 in this fiction and is the same as my other stories, and as such, is training in the Thande institute in Timeline A. Read the Life is in the Multiverse story if you want more info on that. He will enter the nerve gear and attempt to survive.**

 **I have decided to include Yuuki because I feel her character will be suitable, she is my favourite character and because there are too little fanfics about her. Also Mother's Rosario was one of my favourite arcs.**

 **This will be an AU since that gives me more freedom in where the story can go. The Main differences are that Yuuki will be the same age as kirito (14) and will be in SAO. I may add some other characters (*cough *cough, Shino) but I haven't decided yet.**

 **Obligatory disclaimer: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING! Maybe the OC's personality, BUT NOTHING ELSE!**

* * *

Location: Thande institute, Cambridge (Timeline A)

Date: Thursday 5th March 2015 4:55 pm (Local time)

"So this is the tech the insertion team found, eh?" A 15 year old Boy asked.

"Yep, this is it. Most advanced piece of shit we found there too. They clearly had no invasion there, or they'd have had a lot more interesting stuff there...I hope." An older man replied. He was wearing a lab coat, and wore glasses; The stereotypical look of a researcher.

He was stood over a machine that had the words "Nerve Gear" written upon the side. Next to him was a hospital bed, and next to that, was a desk or table of some kind.

"We presume that its some kind of virtual reality helmet, that allows the user to see a virtual world of some kind. Our team also found this." He pointed to different desk, then moved over and picked up the object on top. It was a case for a DVD sized disk. On the case were the words "Sword Art Online".

The 15 year old took the case from the researcher and looked it over, once at the front, then turned it over and looked over the back.

"So, a MMORPG, eh? I like it..." He looked up to the researcher, and it clicked.

"You want me to test it don't you?" He asked.

The researcher nodded, and pointed to the hospital bed.

"That's why we've got this arrangement set up, we believe it works by shutting down the body's nervous system by hooking the brain to the helmet. Not physically, but the helmet directs all electrical signals to the body to the helmet instead. Thus, we think this is how your body will move in-game. We're giving you the hospital bed so that you will be relaxed during the testing and we assume that there will be a calibration set-up before you enter."

"We will also be equipping you with a wrist tablet. This is so that you can communicate with us during the testing. Within that is the equivalent of a top end enterprise computer, so don't mess it up or destroy it….. it also means that you can perform the functions of a computer within the test. I'm going to assume that you don't want a detailed explanation of how that's possible, so I'll skip it."

"So, Alex, are you ready?" The researcher asked.

Alex nodded. "Been a while since I played an RPG, hopefully its good."

Alex lay down on the bed and placed the "Nerve Gear" on his head. It looked like a fighter pilots helmet, or something similar thereof. He looked into the visor on the upper half of the helmet. The researcher nodded to him.

"Everything appears to be correctly set up, so all you have to do is to say link-start and it should begin, ready?"

Alex grinned and shut his eyes. _This should be fun_.

"Link start!"

* * *

Suddenly he was surrounded in white, and right in front of him, were a set of 5 circles. His eyes, or whatever he was looking out of in the virtual environment, looked at each one in turn, and they each vanished.

 _Must be an eye calibration…._

A menu option appeared, where it allowed the user to select their language of choice. Alex was slightly surprised that English was in the options, despite the game being only released in Japan in the timeline.

 _I suppose English is probably a near-second language...or were they hinting at a greater release._

He selected English and waited. He presumed that he wouldn't be able to connect to the servers, no, he knew he wouldn't. How on earth could he connect to servers that aren't even in the same universe as his, this would just be a routine test to test the technology, nothing more, this wouldn't connect.

But no error message appeared, instead, multiple bright colourful lines began to speed towards him, and fly past him at great speed.

 _The hell…._

And then, he heard the sounds of people chatting, and he opened his eyes. He was in a plaza, surrounded by buildings of a rather medieval design. This made sense, since it was an RPG.

And then he realised: _Holy shit, I connected!_ _How is this possible?!_

* * *

Location: Town of Beginnings, Floor 1 (Timeline SAO)

Date: Sunday 6th November 2022 1:15 pm (Local time)

He promptly decided to go and explore, he was in a game, so logically, he chose to go off and grind for EXP. He then remembered that he currently had no sword in his hand, and that he had absolutely no idea of how to open the menu. Then, he heard a ringing. It was coming from his wrist computer, so he lifted up close to his face and pressed what he presumed was the on button.

Sure enough, he was correct, and the face of a researcher appeared in a hologram form. He jumped back instinctively, but then brought his wrist computer to his face again. It wasn't the researcher that had told him about sword Art Online though. This researcher was younger, and a female, probably in her mid-20's, the opposite of the other researcher.

"Um, Who are you?" Alex asked hesitantly.

"I'm professor Sandra, I'm going to be the one to keep an eye on your condition during the test." She smiled at the camera.

"Ok then, that's good, I guess..." He trailed off, looking around at the virtual world he was in. He was amazed, it all looked so realistic, as if it was real life. He noticed people chatting and talking animatedly to each other.

 _They all look so happy…._

He shook off these thoughts, there was no need to bring what happened up now. He glanced at the hologram and spoke.

"Sandra, how on earth do you open the menu?"

Sandra laughed. "Did you read the manual?"

"No, I threw it in a supernova because I disagreed with it. Of course I never read it, who ever does?" Alex shot back.

"Move your index finger down in the air in a continuous motion, understand?"

Alex did just that, and the menu opened. It was very complicatedly looking so he decided he could learn it all later. For now though, he needed what counted as an inventory system in this game. He flicked though the menu, and couldn't find it. He scrolled back to the top, and looked through it again. It was then that he found it. His inventory opened up, and he looked at the glorious emptiness within it.

He noticed, however, that it also contained a sword. He clicked upon it and it appeared in his holster on his belt. He looked the sword over, it was a simple iron cast weapon, something peasants would use in a battle, not like the noble weapons he hoped would appear later.

After looking the sword over, Alex began to walk around the town hoping to find an exit to whatever this place was called. He passed several buildings and windows and noticed himself in the window of what appeared to be a tavern of some kind.

Then a thought came to him, _Why didn't I get to select my avatar?_

He was the same as his normal self, complete with messy black hair. He was also wearing simple peasants clothes and a metal chest piece.

 _N_ _ot stylish or functional in any way, but it'll do._

He continued to walk down the road, passing merchants and sellers trying to do business. Since it was the first day, he assumed all of them were NPC's. No players would have had time to set up shop yet.

* * *

It took him the majority of the afternoon before he found an exit to the town, so much so that the sun was dipped low in the sky by the time he managed to leave the town.

As he entered the fields outside the town, he noticed a boar roaming around the field, several of them in-fact. He equipped his sword into his right hand, ran up to one and struck it once. The Boar stumbled back and roared, then charged towards him.

Alex attempted to block the boars horns with his sword and kicked the Boar in the face twice. This only served to anger the Boar and it pushed back, knocking Alex off of his feet. He attempted to get back up but noticed the boar getting ready to charge. He quickly realised that he wouldn't be able to get up before the boar hit him again. He brought his sword up to delay the inevitable and shut his eyes.

But the impact never arrived.

Carefully, Alex opened his eyes to notice another player standing there in front of him, looking at their Exp reward screen. He looked down and saw the Exp he had gained from the fight.

 _Not much…._

Alex looked back up at the player that had helped him. The player that had helped him, for starters, was a girl.

From first impressions, she looked to be about his age, perhaps younger. She had long flowing purple hair that trailed down her back and red eyes. She wore simple leather clothes, similar to what he himself wore, so he assumed that she was starting out like himself. She carried a sword, the same starter sword that he had. She also wore basic shoes.

"Thanks" was all Alex could say, as he got up onto his feet. "So who are you?"

"I'm Yuuki" She replied, "And you're welcome". She smiled. "You are?"

"Alex" He looked around, then back towards Yuuki. "So, you seem to know your way about this game, could you show me how to play?"

Yuuki raised her, or at least he assumed it was a her since he was basing the assumption completely on her Avatar, eyebrow and smiled again.

"Sure, teaching someone like you shouldn't be too difficult."

"Great!" Alex grinned, then "Wait, what do you mean 'someone like me'?!" He asked, indignantly.

But Yuuki was already walking away, unbeknownst to Alex, she was also grinning.

"Nothing! Now come on, I need to teach you, don't I?"

Alex let out a hmph and followed her.

* * *

It had been about an hour since Yuuki had begun to teach Alex about the game, and how to do things called sword skills. Alex guessed that it was purely to make the game easier to play for people with little sword knowledge or skill, like him for instance, but he would never admit that. During that time, they had been mercilessly slaughtering boars and gaining col, which Alex assumed to be currency, and Exp.

Yuuki was clearly the better one out of the two players. She had killed the most boars and, Alex saw, was completely ruthless when dealing with them. She was able to deal with multiple boars at the same time with devastating speed and seemingly great skill, whereas Alex would be lucky to even reach half that speed and skill.

They were still murdering boars in cold blood when they decided to head back to the starter town to get something to eat. Though they had departed many boars from this world, they didn't have much col, so they both decided to buy what little food they could from an NPC seller.

"So," Alex began, as he and Yuuki sat on a bench and ate, "You seem to have quite the experience, played stuff like this before?"

Yuuki stiffened, then smiled. "Yeah, you could say I have….What about you?" She took a bite and continued, "You played something similar to this before?"

Alex shook his head. "Nope, first time. As you could probably tell by my inexperience in the art of killing boars." He grinned, and Yuuki grinned back.

"Well, I best be off, want to play tomorrow, since...er….um…..I still need help?" He spoke the last part quietly, half hoping Yuuki wouldn't hear it.

"Sure!" Yuuki nodded. "Do you know how to log out?"

Alex paused, then sighed, "Another thing for you to tell me about then..." He looked back to Yuuki. "So, how do you log out?"

Yuuki demonstrated. "You open up the menu, you know how to do that right?" Alex nodded.

"You go to the settings and then…." Her voice trailed off.

"What is it?" Alex asked. He guessed it wasn't a good thing.

"The log out button, its gone."

"Huh, wait" He flicked through his own menu and reached the settings. She was right, it was gone, vanished, had disappeared.

"Well, er…, is there anyway to log out other than that?" Alex asked, just ever so slightly worried.

Yuuki shook her head, and Alex could tell she was slightly worried as well. "No, the nerve gear blocks out all sensory input to your real body, so you can't take the helmet off from inside the game…."

"Damn, so we have to wait for an update. Day-one DLC anyone? Hope its free..." Alex spoke with a slight smile, probably from the reference he had made. This very slightly cheered up Yuuki.

"Never-mind, they should fix it soon." Alex spoke this as he was surrounded by a blue light. "Wait, what's this-"

* * *

Location: Town of Beginnings, Floor 1 (Timeline SAO)

Date: Sunday 6th November 2022 5:30 pm (Local time)

Alex appeared in the central area of the starter town. He looked around himself and in his inventory and was pleased to find he still had his stuff.

 _Must have been a teleport_ _of some kind_ _._

He looked around to discover the beginning area was quickly filling up with players teleporting in. The majority of them looked very confused, as they wondered what had happened to them and why they had been teleported here.

 _So it wasn't by choice…_

"Why the teleport?" Alex turned around to find Yuuki just behind him.

"I don't know, this shouldn't happen right?" He replied, now the slight worry was evident in his voice.

"No, it shouldn't. Perhaps we're about to get answers…." She pointed to the sky, which, Alex had not noticed, was now full of red hexagons with the word 'WARNING' written on them.

By now the entire crowd was looking at the sky in anticipation, and fear, of what was going on. They didn't know what was going to happen.

What appeared to be blood began to drip down from in between the cracks of five different hexagons. But the blood did not hit the floor, instead, it curved back inwards towards the other falling blood columns and began to coalesce into a being. The being looked like a wizard, with a red drooping cloak and yellow bands on the arms of the cloak covering the being. It had no face, inside the cloak it appeared to be nothing but cavernous darkness.

It took thirty seconds for the being to fully coalesce, at which point it looked upon the people in the crowd, who looked back at it. Their eyes were wide in absolute, abject terror at the being. They were not aware of its intent or its purpose, and were scared of what it could do.

On the bright side, they didn't have to wait long for it to start speaking.

On the down side, what it spoke of was completely horrifying.

"ATTENTION PLAYERS!" A pause. "WELCOME TO MY WORLD!"

"MY NAME IS KAYABA AKIHIKO. AT THIS MOMENT, I AM THE SOLE PERSON WHO CAN CONTROL THIS WORLD."

So far, nothing bad.

"Who's Kayaba Akihiko?" Alex wondered aloud. Yuuki turned to him, opened mouthed.

"He's the developer of the game, you're playing his creation, how could you not know who he is?!"

"I haven't been out a lot…." Alex had created that lie on the spot, how could he tell anyone here he wasn't from their universe. He'd be put in an asylum for the criminal insane, or whatever the equivalent was. He'd sound crazy, and nobody would believe him.

Yuuki turned and looked back at the being. Everyone else was questioning whether this was the real deal or just an irritating hacker. What the being said next though, answered that question.

"YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED THAT THE LOGOUT BUTTON IS MISSING FROM THE MAIN MENU. THIS IS NOT A DEFECT, I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DEFECT, BUT A FEATURE OF SWORD ART ONLINE. NO-ONE CAN LOG OUT OF SWORD ART ONLINE, AND NO-ONE CAN SAFELY REMOVE OR DETACH THE NERVEGEAR FROM YOUR HEADS.

SHOULD ANYBODY ATTEMPT THAT, A POWERFUL MICROWAVE SHALL BE EMITTED FROM THE HELMET. THE MICROWAVES SHALL FRY YOUR BRAIN AND END YOUR LIFE QUICKLY AND PAINLESSLY."

Alex looked to Yuuki with a worried look, Yuuki simply looked back at Alex with an equally worried expression. Alex then looked down at his wrist computer and pressed the on button. The face of Sandra appeared in the hologram. Just as Alex was about to speak, she interrupted.

"Yeah, don't worry, I caught all of that. I'll be speaking with head office to see what we can do."

Alex nodded, "So I'm affected?"

"Yup."

"Ok then…." He turned off the computer into what he hoped was a listen in but no look mode and looked back at the sky, but not before looking at Yuuki, who was looking at him with a Questioning look. Alex mouthed 'I'll tell you later' and looked back at the sky.

The being spoke once more.

"UNFORTUNATELY, SEVERAL PLAYER'S FRIENDS AND FAMILIES HAVE ATTEMPTED TO FORCIBLY REMOVE THE NERVEGEAR, AND HAVE IGNORED THIS WARNING. AS A RESULT, TWO-HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN, NO, FOURTEEN NOW, PEOPLE HAVE DEPARTED FROM BOTH THE VIRTUAL AND REAL WORLDS. AS YOU CAN SEE, NEWS ORGANISATIONS FROM AROUND THE WORLD HAVE ALREADY PICKED UP ON THE DEATHS, SO YOU CAN BE ASSURED THAT NOBODY WILL INTERRUPT YOUR GAMING EXPERIENCE."

Alex glanced at the pictures of the news corporations flicking around the beings cloak. He could distinctly see the BBC and CNN, as well as Fox news, ITV and a whole bunch of other news networks. _Well, at least they're in this timeline._

"THERE IS ALSO NO MAIN METHOD TO REVIVE PLAYERS IN GAME, ONCE YOU REACH 0 HP, YOUR AVATAR WILL BE DELETED FROM THE SYSTEMS AND THE NERVEGEAR WILL DESTROY YOUR BRAINS.

THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY TO ESCAPE, YOU MUST CLEAR EACH FLOOR AND DEFEAT THE BOSS ON EACH OF THEM. ONCE YOU HAVE DEFEATED THE BOSS ON FLOOR ONE HUNDRED, THE GAME WILL END AND YOU WILL BE LOGGED OUT.

YOU MAY USE ANY AND ALL MEANS NECESSARY TO CLEAR THE GAME.

OH, AND ONE FINAL THING. I HAVE LEFT A GIFT FOR YOU IN YOUR INVENTORIES."

Everyone began to look in their inventories and were confused to find a mirror. Once pulling said mirror out, a bright light overtook them. The light faded and people looked around confused.

Everyone had changed looks.

Except for Alex, it seemed, who looked exactly the same as before. He looked around and found Yuuki, at least, the real Yuuki.

Her appearance had changed. She was around the same height, but her long purple hair had been changed to short black hair around upper neck length. She was slightly pale, but not enough to cause too much concern, and, strangely enough, she retained the red eyes.

"Yuuki?"

"Yeah, it's me." She replied, still looking at herself.

"THAT ENDS THE TUTORIAL AND THE OFFICIAL START OF SWORD ART ONLINE! GOOD LUCK!"

The being began to falter and vanished. The red hexagons in the sky vanished and the world looked like it did before the being was ever there.

"So, isn't a tutorial meant to offer instructions on how to play? Not deliver the stuff of nightmares by a mass-murderer with a god-complex." Alex asked to no one in particular.

Then all hell broke loose.

* * *

People began to scream, yell, swear, run around desperately trying to escape to somewhere, anywhere but the main plaza. Alex quickly grabbed Yukki's arm and pulled her towards the side street he had used earlier.

After they had escaped, they managed to retrace their steps to the field they had met in. They slumped on to the ground in silence.

Alex broke the silence first. "So, what's the plan?"

Yuuki shrugged. "We've got to get supplies and level up, I suppose. Keep ahead of everyone else, and clear the game."

Alex nodded. "Yeah, that would be a good aim." He got up and held out an arm for Yuuki. "Come on, lets go. Need to get to another town by nightfall."

Yuuki looked up at him. "Why the arm?"

"Well, we're sticking together aren't we? Safety in numbers and all, also, you still need to teach me stuff." He smiled at her.

Yuuki, despite what had gone on less than an hour before, returned the smile and let Alex help her up. "Yeah, I suppose we should. What's that thing on your arm anyway?" She gestured to the wrist computer on his arm.

"This?" He looked at it. "This is a wrist computer developed by the researchers I work for. How they managed to get this in game I do not know. But it functions like a normal computer." He pressed the wake up button, or at least he hoped it was, and the hologram of Sandra appeared. "This is Sandra, whom I presume is the main researcher in charge of my test, of course, given the circumstances, its more complicated now..."

"Hi, Yuuki isn't it? Nice to meet you." Sandra suddenly spoke.

"You too." Yuuki replied.

After more pleasantries had been exchanged, Alex turned off the computer. He turned to Yuuki, and pointed over the hill in front of them. The sun was setting in the virtual sky.

"The next town should be in that direction, according to the map, so we should probably get going."

He began to walk, and Yuuki ran to reach along side him. They fell in pace as they walked to their next destination.


	2. Chapter 2

Location: Tolbana, Floor 1 (Timeline SAO)

Date: Friday 2nd December 2022 3:30 pm (Local time)

It had been about a month since the start of Sword Art Online. A most dangerous game, indeed, as around 2000 people, a quarter of the in-game population, a whole 25%, had perished. They had departed from the game, and the real world. It was a sickening figure, and this only served to dishearten people more. This was mainly because everyone was still stuck on the first floor. 1 out of 100. People were scared and frightened. This was real.

However, though these statistics stayed on their minds, Alex and Yuuki remained level headed, and were attempting to survive. At the moment, they were both eating in the main square in Tolbana, the closest town to the Town of beginnings. They had arrived here on the first day, but had left multiple times to level up and gain EXP and Col. They had also rented out an inn room every night for the month, as a place to stay. They would have rented two rooms to maintain privacy, however they weren't very wealthy at the current time and so had to stick to one. The room of course had two beds within it. For matters of changing or private things in general, one would stay outside of the room with the door shut. In terms of appearance, neither of them had changed to drastically, if really at all. Both of them still wore the basic starter clothes.

Sandra and the researchers back at the Thande institute in Cambridge (Timeline A) carried on to monitor Alex's condition throughout the month. Preparations were immediately made to attach Alex to medical instruments so that he wouldn't waste away and die when his body needed nutrients and water. Head office had also decided to send agents into Timeline SAO's Tokyo in order to see how the authorities were dealing with the crisis over there. There was to be absolutely no interfering on the part of Timeline A. Head offices orders. But the reaction to the crisis in Timeline SAO was much to be expected. Hospitalisations and life support systems to all the victims, an international manhunt for Akihiko Kayaba and a rather ineffectual government agency to monitor the causes for this.

Over the course of the month, Alex and Yuuki had struck up a basic friendship. Both weren't very willing to discuss much about their pasts, but both of them had learned to not ask, and so talked and laughed about more light hearted matters. Not to mention, they competed an awful lot. Alex had begun to catch up to Yuuki's skill, and so they both had competitions to see who could kill the most mobs. Yuuki won all of these and Alex would lose, _I nearly beat you._ _Next time!_ He would declare. Yuuki would in response often laugh, as they both knew that the chance of Alex beating her in mob killing was about as much as winning the lottery.

As they were eating, they began to talk about the boss meeting happening in the town later that day.

"So, do you know anything about the boss?" Alex spoke in between mouthfuls.

Yuuki shook her head as she ate. "No…..who found it anyway?" She took another bite.

Alex replied. "Guy by the name of Diavel found it with his party. I think he's the one leading the meeting. He should tell us."

He finished his meal, consisting of a simple, if large, piece of stale bread and commented. "I should really invest some points into cooking skills, if so I can actually eat something edible."

Yuuki finished her meal, the same thing as Alex, and muttered. "Agreed."

"At least its better than my cooking in the real world…." He whispered under his breath.

Yuuki tilted her head in curiosity. "What happened?" She asked.

Alex turned. _She had heard him?_ "I don't really wa-"

"Tell me." Yuuki had now leaned in quite close with a very wide grin on her face. Alex grimaced on the inside, both at the corner Yuuki had pushed him into and the fact that she could get him to reveal any information by being that uncomfortably close to him. She just had that ability.

Alex leaned away from Yuuki and sighed. "I set fire to water and food-poisoned some people, with completely sterilised food and equipment." He spoke it quietly.

Yuuki leaned back to her usual sitting position (Alex took a breath at this) and began to laugh, loudly.

"Are you really that bad?" She asked while still laughing. "I mean, setting fire to water, how can you even do that?!" She laughed even louder.

Alex mock pouted and folded his arms into his chest. "How should I know? The water just decided to up and ignore the laws of physics that day." Yuuki laughed even louder at this explanation, enough to attract the looks of people around them.

And even though Alex was mock pouting, in reality, he liked the sound of Yuuki's laughing. It brought him a sense of happiness that he was making someone else's day positive.

When Yuuki's laughter had died down, she wiped the tears out of her eyes and looked at Alex. "Yeah, maybe I should be the one to learn the cooking skills.." Alex took a breath of relief.

This sense of relief lasted for all of about five seconds when Yuuki then said. "But we're both learning the cooking skill up to at least level 250."

Alex turned to look at her with a look of shock. "But that's a quarter of the Maximum, how the hell am I going to get it that high?"

"With lots of practice." Yuuki giggled.

Alex groaned and droned. "I'll try then…."

Yuuki shook her head. "Do, or do not do, there is no try."

Alex face palmed at this as Yuuki giggled some more. _Why had he taught her Yoda's quote out of anything he could have taught her_. He remembered back to when he told her about it. She had absolutely no idea what Star Wars was, much to his amazement and horror. Alex assumed it was because either she couldn't see it, or perhaps, because it was never made in her Timeline. Alex had realised, this possibility was completely possible.

It was around this time that Yuuki remembered that the meeting about the floor boss was due to take place at 4:00 pm. She checked her menu and saw that the time was 3:54 pm. Without a word, still giggling, she shut her menu, stood up and hauled Alex up suddenly. Then, she began to sprint towards the amphitheater where the meeting was going to be held. She held Alex's arm in her right hand, and she wouldn't let go until they got to the meeting. She smiled while doing this, and Alex's protests only made her smile more.

* * *

The meeting was being held in a ruined amphitheater in the center to Tolbana. From what Alex could gather, it was based on old Roman and Greek designs. Indeed, the entire town looked to be based on an old Roman town of some sort. By the time Alex and Yuuki arrived, it was 4:01 pm and there looked to be about 40 people sitting in the stands, some together, some apart. The meeting was being led by a blue haired man, whom Alex assumed was Diavel.

Since the both of them didn't really know anyone else there, they opted to sit alone near the back of the amphitheatre. There were only two other people sat anywhere near them. One was a black haired boy, with black eyes. He stared at the meeting below, looking slightly bored with it. The other was a person in a red cloak. Alex couldn't be sure whether the cloak wearer was a boy or girl, so he decided not to assume. He or she's face couldn't be seen, so their expression was unknown.

The Blue haired man at the front began speaking. "Okay, lets get started! Thank you all for coming. I am Diavel, and the job I rolled is knight!" Most people began to laugh at this.

"There's no job system in this game!" Another cried out.

Diavel simply carried on smiling. "Humour boosts morale, so I thought it would be good to start with some. But now we should be serious. Earlier today, our party found the boss room at the top of the tower." The laughter immediately stopped as people began to listen in intently.

He continued. "We will defeat this boss and show to everyone on floor one that this game can, and will, be beaten. We will all share this duty together, agreed?!" People began to murmur and chat to each other, some shaking heads, others nodding. Then one person began to clap, and another, then more, people continued to clap and some began to cheer. Alex and Yuuki couldn't help but clap, impressed. _He is a born leader._ Alex looked towards the dark haired boy and the cloak wearer. The black haired boy simply looked on with a smile on his face, whereas the cloak user was as impassive and neutral as they ever were.

Diavel began to speak again. "Let us begin planning, divide into groups of six for the raid, make sure you can trust these people, even if by only a small amount."

Yuuki looked at Alex and Alex looked back at her. They both nodded to each other, they would be in the same group together, that was a given. But they were still four people short. They noticed the black haired boy and the cloak wearer were partying up, and Alex went to approach them, Yuuki following close behind.

"Hey, can we party up with you? We're still a little short…." Yuuki asked.

The black haired boy thought for a quick moment, then nodded. "Sure." He sent them both an invite request to a party, which Alex and Yuuki were quick to accept. Two new names appeared in the top right hand side of their HUD's. _Kirito and Asuna._ So the cloak user was a girl, it was confirmed.

They all sat down next to each other and looked back to where Diavel was, he was about to say something when a shout interrupted them all.

"WAIT A SECOND!" The voice cried from above and behind them. Everyone looked to the source of the voice, to find a spiky haired, yet short, man standing above them. He quickly bounded down the seats of the amphitheatre until he reached the main stage, where Diavel was standing.

He began to speak in a relatively confident tone. "My name's Kibaou. I need to say something before we take on the boss. Some people need to come down and apologize to the rest of us, for the 2000 people that have died so far! You all know who I'm talking about, the Beta-testers!" He spat out the word in disgust.

He continued. "On the day this stupid thing began, they all ran off, grabbing the best loot and leaving the rest of us behind! They took the best hunting spots and the easy quests for themselves and never gave a Damn about us! I say we should force the Beta-testers on to their knees to apologize and that we should receive all their Col and items. How else are we to trust them?!"

Alex was not surprised at this outburst, wherever you went, there was always prejudice, and the situation they were currently in only exemplified the results. He glanced over at the others. Yuuki was shocked at Kibaou's outburst. Asuna was very neutral, and Kirito had a look of worry on his face. _Was he a Beta-tester?_ Alex wondered.

Then, there was an interruption.

"If I might interject."

Kibaou glanced at the man who had spoken, and waved his hand dismissively. "Who the hell are you?"

The man got up, he was very tall, around 6 feet, and appeared to be of African heritage. He was bald and had rather large muscles. He towered over Kibaou.

"My name is Agil. So, Kibaou-san, tell me if I have this correct. You believe that the Beta-testers should be punished for not aiding the new players, right?" Kibaou nodded.

Agil brought out a book from his inventory, and asked. "You have this free guide don't you? The one given out at the item shops for free?"

Kibaou glanced at the book. "Yeah, what of it?"

"It was created by information gathered by the Beta-testers, they created this to help people, but many still died. That wasn't their fault." Agil stood after he said that, as if daring Kibaou into an argument.

But instead, Kibaou just pouted and stormed back to an empty seat in the amphitheatre. It just so happened that it was located next to where Agil was seating.

Agil nodded to Diavel and walked back to his seat, Diavel continued talking.

"Okay, so the latest issue of the guide was issued, it has some useful information on the boss. Its name is Illfang the Kobold Lord. He is guided by 3 guards called Ruin Kobold Sentinels. It has 4 health bars, but when a heath bar is depleted, 3 more guards spawn. He is armed with an axe and buckler, but when he enters the red, he will switch to a sword like weapon called a Talwar. He will change his attack patterns as-well, so we should be careful about that too." There were mutterings in the crowd about possible ways to defeat this.

Alex, Yuuki, Kirito and Asuna just sat and listened, each content to their own thoughts.

Diavel had a last thing to say. "This concludes the briefing, oh, and items will be automatically distributed, EXP goes to the party that defeats the boss, and whoever receives and item will keep it. Got it?" Everyone nodded at this, as it seemed fair.

"Good, then rest up, we leave at ten tomorrow!" Most were happy with this time, but of course, there was at least one person….

"Ten, That's SO EARLY!" The person groaned.

Diavel looked at the person and sighed. _Geez_. "Ok then, We'll do eleven."

Everyone began to get up and walk out the amphitheatre to wherever they were needed that afternoon. Asuna quickly stood up and began to walk away. Alex turned to Kirito. "Well, see you tomorrow for the boss fight then." Yuuki smiled at Kirito and gestured him to go after Asuna.

After Kirito had left to go find Asuna, and hopefully, just maybe, break her out of her shell, just a little bit, Yuuki and Alex slowly left to go back to their inn room. They chatted on the way back.

"You ready for this?" Yuuki asked.

"I should be the one to ask you." Alex replied with a smile on his face. "But yes, I think I'm ready. It'll all go fine, and we will both survive. Besides..." He paused. "I want to catch up in our mob competitions. I can beat you!"

"In your dreams." Yuuki cried, then giggled. Then she spoke. "Actually, you could begin to learn how to cook later on back at the inn."

The look Alex gave her was more than enough to convince her to carry on with the idea, not to mention, make her laugh in hysterics at the utter horror on his face. She then dragged him to the market to pick some simple ingredients, most notably, Boar meat.

* * *

After pretty much dragging Alex back to the inn against his will like the over-active girl she was, she set up the cooking implement on the main table in their inn room and placed the ingredients on the table next to it. All the while, Alex looked on in horror as he realised, _I have to actually cook_. As Yuuki set up the implements, Alex looked around the inn room for any escape. The 2nd story window looked promising, but as he discretely attempted to open it, he realised it was completely locked.

"Oh yeah, I locked the window." Yuuki replied to his frantic fiddling with the lock. She laughed at his frantic attempts to escape, this was much more entertaining than she had hoped for. "Can't have you missing out on dinner." She smiled at him, but Alex saw, it was more than a smile, it was a very smug grin. Alex choked and attempted to claw his way to the door, but found that it too was locked, by Yuuki. "The door too." Melodramatically, Alex slid to the floor and clutched his heart. Yuuki walked over to him and dragged him to the table. She gestured at the implements and spoke. "There's the stuff, there's the meat, cook a meal."

Alex looked at the table and gulped. _This was going to be fun_.

* * *

To say the meal had been bad would have been rude, but, in Yuuki's humblest opinion, it needed a lot of work. A LOT. Whoever knew you could screw up bacon and have it not taste delicious. Yuuki didn't, and she was shocked by the horrible texture of it. It was essentially burnt to a crisp. Alex certainly wasn't joking when he said he couldn't cook. Quite frankly, Yuuki was surprised Alex hadn't been arrested for mass food poisoning yet. But alas, there is a first time for everything.

It had been Alex's time to laugh at Yuuki when she first ate his bacon. He could perfectly describe her facial expressions as she ate. First was the anticipation for the meal, then the shock of 'What is this?' as the burnt char was placed in front of her. His laughter had begun at this point, albeit quietly. It had grown louder as she took her first bite, her eyes widening in disgust, and had turned into hysterics as she chewed slowly, then spat out the bacon with a tone and look of vile disgust and quickly ran into the bathroom to rinse her mouth out of the charred remains of the bacon.

When Yuuki reappeared in the room, all Alex could do was stifle giggles as he asked. "So I take it you enjoyed my wonderful meal?"

The look on Yuuki's face was totally worth it.

* * *

Location: Forest Floor, Floor 1 (Timeline SAO)

Date: Saturday 3rd December 2022 11:42 am (Local time)

The walk to the boss fight was long and tedious, but most people were in high spirits, ready to take on the boss. The group consisted of about 40 people, with Diavel and Kibaou at the front, leading the troops. Agil was further back, a solitary figure in his his group, seriously looking about for any threats. Then there was the other bulk of players who were there for the fight, not much to be told about them, for they all carried rather similar gear, and were basically the grunts of the operation. Or as Alex put it in his head, _Cannon-fodder_. Then right at the back was Alex, still internally smiling from the expression Yuuki made the night before, Yuuki, bouncing around and practising her sword skills excitedly, Asuna, who, by a miracle, had begun to talk to them, and Kirito, who was explaining to Asuna the basic plan of attack while trying to not wonder how on earth Yuuki could have so much energy.

"So our job is to keep the Sentinels of the Main attack groups. I'll attack first to knock their weapons up, then you switch in to attack. Got it?"

"...What's a switch?"

At this, Kirito paused, he looked at Asuna. "Wait, is this your first time being in a party?"

Asuna nodded. Kirito let out a deep sigh and asked the others. "Could you explain to her?"

"What?"

"How to do a switch. Teach Asuna."

"A what now?" Yuuki was confused, and, so was Alex.

Kirito looked at them in shock. "Wait, do none of you know how to do a switch?"

Yuuki shook her head, whereas Alex thought for a moment. "No, never done it before."

At this, Kirito had practically collapsed. He then noticed that the group was trailing further away from the main raid party. In response, he let out another deep sigh and told the others. "Ok, I'll explain how to do a switch on the way, right now though, we need to catch up to them." He pointed ahead. They all began to speed up to catch up, as Kirito silently prayed that they weren't all going to die immediately due to someone else's incompetence. It had happened in other games, and Kirito had vowed to not join other guilds for this very purpose. A guild was only as strong as its weakest player, after all.

* * *

Location: Floor 1 Boss room, Floor 1 (Timeline SAO)

Date: Saturday 3rd December 2022 11:59 am (Local time)

Everyone was now outside the boss room, in front of the large, imposing door, that separated the group from whatever horror lay inside. Diavel stood at the front, watching as the group trickled in from the stairs they had came from. The order everyone trickled in was the same as the way they walked. As a result, Alex, Yuuki, Asuna and Kirito were the last to enter.

Diavel had unsheathed his sword and was carrying it by his side as he looked over the group.

"Right everyone, I have only one thing to say. LETS WIN!"

With that, he opened the door to the boss room. The entire group moved in slowly. It was dark inside, but everyone could tell, the room was big. It had large pillars on either side, and at the end of the room in the darkness, lay a throne with a large red being upon it. Then the group saw the being look up, as its eyes began to glow red. The room lit up, as the walls and roof turned into a multitude of colours and patterns. The red being stood up, and jumped forward into the main part of the room. 3 Kobold Sentinels spawned around it. The Sentinels moved into position, 3 health bars and the name appeared next to the red being: Illfang the Kobold Lord.

Illfang roared, and began to charge towards the group.

Everyone froze, and prepared battle stances. Alex and Yuuki unsheathed their swords. Kirito had already got his in his hand, and Asuna was readying her rapier.

Diavel and Kibaou were staring at the boss, thinking about what it would do and how it would attack.

But there was always one player who charged in anyway. He yelled a stylised battle cry and ran towards Illfang. Illfang simply swatted him away with a head blow and the man shattered into polygons instantly. The others only looked on in revulsion at the first casualty.

Their first death.

Alex knew it was morbid, but couldn't help but mutter under his breath. "Dammit Leeroy."

Then Diavel began to charge towards the centre of the room, where Illfang was, and the others began to follow him. Kibaou led his group along side. The other 40 or so ran as-well. Yuuki and Alex ran behind the others, along with Asuna and Kirito. Illfang and the front groups clashed in the centre of the room, and the fight began.

It went initially well, the front groups were able to score key hits on Illfang with little to no injuries inflicted. Kibaou proved to be a rather skilled at deflecting the Sentinels blows, while Agil swung his axe around at high speed into any enemy that crossed him. Diavel commanded from the centre of the room, only swinging at enemies if they happened to get close to him.

He belted out orders to the groups to do certain things, like "Attack that Sentinel" or "Switch groups!"

Alex and Yuuki were at the back taking on a Sentinel together. Alex was the one to begin of the attack, stunning the Enemy, then switching out and letting Yuuki unleash her speed and skill to eliminate the Sentinel quickly and effectively. Kirito and Asuna were taking on another Sentinel. They dealt with it quickly also, with Kirito stunning it with an attack by his sword (the Anneal blade) and Asuna striking it with stunning speed and technique using her rapier.

Both Alex and Kirito were impressed by Asuna's and Yuuki's skills, respectively. Alex was impressed by the elegance Asuna used to dispatch the Sentinel, whereas Kirito was ever so slightly unnerved by the Speed and ruthless skill Yuuki had used to dispatch her foe.

Eventually, the Sentinels were all taken care of, and Illfang was down to its last HP bar, in the red.

 _Now for the Talwar, same strategy as last time…._ Kirito thought.

The group of players moved back as a single group and took up defensive positions. They watched as Illfang dumped the weapon it was currently holding on the floor.

Then Diavel began to run towards Illfang and ready a sword skill. His sword glowed yellow.

 _I thought we were all going to attack it…._ Alex wondered.

Illfang reached for, and pulled out, his sword.

Diavel continued to run.

Illfang held up his sword, and activated a sword skill.

Diavel was confident of success, he had done this in the beta as well.

But there was one problem.

Illfang's sword was not a Talwar.

* * *

Kirito was the first to react. He cursed under his breath. "Shit." Then he yelled. "Diavel, that's not a Talwar, That's a NODACHI!"

But Diavel reaction was too little, too late. Everyone else could only watch on it sheer horror as Illfang launched a 3-hit combo on Diavel, targeting his face, chest, and then a second chest strike, sending Diavel flying. He crashed into a Pillar at a very quick speed, and slumped to the floor. Kirito rushed to him, but before he got anywhere near him, Diavel had shattered into polygons.

The leader of the group had died.

Kirito stopped running and turned around. He ran back to Asuna, Yuuki and Alex, and looked at them with a determined face. They responded in kind.

Illfang roared at the group of around 40. They were scared, and now leaderless.

Alex looked at Yuuki, she nodded.

They began to charge towards Illfang, swords at the ready.

Kirito and Asuna followed swiftly behind.

Alex was the first to land a blow, deflecting Illfang's Nodachi.

Yuuki exploited the gap, and let rip with her speed based sword skills.

Asuna followed with the grace of her rapier.

And Kirito charged in last with an uppercut that sliced through Illfang's body and up through his head.

Illfang's HP lowered. It emptied.

And it died, shattering into Polygons.

There was silence.

Then a congratulations notice appeared where Illfang was, and everyone began to celebrate. Cheering and congratulating each other. Everyone began looking at the amount of Col and EXP they had all received. The rainbow lights on the walls of the room dimmed, and the room was just as it was before the boss battle.

Meanwhile, Kirito was looking at the last attack bonus he had received. The Coat of Midnight.

He heard a voice behind him. "Good work." It was Asuna.

"Thanks, you did well too." He replied.

"We were awesome!" That was Yuuki, elated by the victory.

"Yeah, nice job you three." Alex spoke happily. "Onwards to victory."

They were interrupted by a shout. Everyone became silent.

"Why?! Why did you let Diavel die?!" Everyone turned to the source of the voice. It was Lind, a player in Diavel's party.

"Let him die?" Kirito was confused, and so were the others.

"Yes! You knew the technique the boss used!" Lind was angry now.

Then Kibaou stepped in. "I know, You were a Beta-tester! You withheld the information, and Diavel died because of it! You are to blame!"

Everyone began to look around suspiciously at each other, then at Kirito with dirty looks. Someone else shouted. "There must be other Beta-testers around here as well! Come out!"

People were growing suspicious and distrusting of each other. The celebratory mood of earlier was gone, replaced by fear. People looked at each other, to root out the Beta-testers.

Yuuki and Alex were both slightly shocked that the crowd could turn on Kirito that quickly, but Asuna was pissed. She was about to say something, when Kirito began to laugh maniacally.

"A beta-tester? I wish you wouldn't compare me to those newbies."

People were startled, _what was going on_?

But Kirito continued. "Most of the Beta-testers were beginners, many didn't know how to level up, or hold a sword. Even you lot are better than them."

He walked through the crowd of other players.

"But I'm not like them. Not at all." He took a long pause. "I was better than them all, I got higher than all the other players, I fought monsters and bosses with higher levels. I know more than any other information broker." He smiled smugly.

Kibaou was mad. "You're worse than a Beta-tester, you're a damn cheater, that's what you are!"

Someone else chimed in. "A beater!"

Others agreed with them. "Yeah, a Beater!"

Kirito grinned. "Yes, a Beater, I like it. I am a Beater. Just don't associate me with Beta-testers."

Kirito equipped the Coat of Midnight and flipped the coat around him menacingly. He also began to proceed towards the stairs to the next floor, where the throne once was.

Both Alex and Yuuki began to walk after him, but Asuna was first.

"Wait!" She yelled out. Kirito turned around.

"What is it? I'm a Beater now."

"We're coming with you." Kirito was shocked.

"No."

But Asuna was determined. "You have no choice, we're in a party, and we're in this together."

Kirito looked at her, then at Alex and Yuuki. "Are you sure, you'll be known as Beaters yourself and probably ostracised by a lot of people."

Asuna nodded. "We fought well together, so I think we should all stick together." A slight blush appeared on her face, but Kirito didn't notice.

"And you two?"

Yuuki replied. "As Asuna said, we all work well together, so I'm all for it." She smiled.

Alex then spoke. "I think it would be a good idea, you three are very good at this so far, and I think we would be awesome together. Just for the record though…." He turned to face the other players in the room, looking specifically at Kibaou. "I think Beater's a shit name."

Lind began to yell towards them. "Do you really want to be associated with Him?!"

Asuna replied. "Better than being with you lot."

With that, Alex, Kirito, Yuuki and Asuna turned around and walked towards the stairs. But of course, Alex had one last thing to say.

He looked at the group, who were watching the four of them leaving with rage.

"Kibaou, Lind, instead of calling people names and raging when they are better than you, there is a better thing you can do."

"GIT GUD NEWB!"

With this, Yuuki burst out laughing, Kirito began to smile, and Asuna, low and behold, grinned slightly. The four, now in better spirits, turned and ascended the staircase to the second floor, leaving the main raid party staring at their backs with anger and distrust.


	3. Chapter 3

Location: Urbus, Floor 2 (Timeline SAO)

Date: Wednesday7thDecember 20229:30 pm (Local time)

He opened his eyes…

He was in a room. On a bed. He was not aware of where he was. He was looking at the ceiling. He turned over to look at the rest of room.

And screamed with fright, for Yuuki's face was inches from his, wide eyed with mischief.

Alex quickly backed up against the wall his bed was next to and sat up. He remembered where he was. He was in an inn room on Urbus, the second floor.

No, make that trapped in the inn room on Urbus, the second floor, for he was trapped with Yuuki.

Yuuki shrieked with laughter at Alex's reaction, Alex pouted.

"Its not that funny…."

Yuuki continued to laugh. "But..." She couldn't even continue the sentence. She was laughing too much.

It took a while for Yuuki to calm down, while Alex continued to pout. He tried to change the conversation.

"So, when are Kirito and Asuna getting back?"

Yuuki had just stopped laughing, and shrugged. "I'm not too sure, they've been trapped in that cave for the quest for 3 days, so I don't think too long."

Since the first floor Boss battle, 3 days earlier, Kirito had talked to Argo, the 'rat' as she was said to be known as, and had gathered data on a martial arts quest. After getting said data for a rather large fee (Argo was quite the businesswoman), he had found the location of the quest.

It was a rather large hole.

And, being Kirito, he inevitably fell down said hole, while dragging Asuna in with him. So Yuuki and Alex did what they could; They shouted that they'd rent an inn room in the main town, go train, and leave them to it until they got the quest. Such nice people.

With that, there was a knock upon the door.

Alex looked at Yuuki and grinned, who groaned and muttered something along the lines of Alex being lazy. Alex smirked, Yuuki went to open the door.

As soon as she opened it, a blur barrelled past her, pushing her aside, into the bathroom with an audible clicking of the lock. Yuuki looked at the bathroom door, then back to the front door, then back to the bathroom door, then the front door once more, wondering what on earth just happened. Then Kirito appeared, running up the stairs.

"Asuna just ran to the bathroom, didn't she?"

Yuuki's eyes widened, the blur was Asuna. _Damn, she was quick…._

She turned back to Kirito. "I think it was….so..."

"She was complaining about the bath situation for the entire three days we were both trapped down there." He glared at both Alex and Yuuki, then smiled. "I've got the skill though. So Asuna won't kill me now for a lack of a bath."

"That's good." Alex replied. "I kinda like all your company. Would be so inconvenient if something were to happen to you...would ruin my record."

"What record?" Yuuki asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Ruin your record? I thought you were nice." Kirito joked, a grin apparent on his face.

"I left you in a hole to fend for yourself, after you fell in said hole." Alex was smiling. "Since when was that a pleasant thing to do to someone?"

"He also dragged me into the hole!" The three heard Asuna yell from behind the locked door. "Don't forget that!"

"But I apologised!" Kirito attempted to reason, but Asuna made an audible _Hmph_ sound, and did not speak more. Kirito sighed.

Yuuki walked from the door and Kirito walked back in after her. A third figure walked in after them, dressed in a brown hood of some kind.

Yuuki and Alex were oblivious to this, until the figure pounced on Kirito with a cry. "Ki-BOU!"

Kirito jumped and turned quickly, locking eyes with Argo, who grinned from ear to ear.

"Argo! What are you doing here?! And how did you find us?!"

That was actually a rather good question. Since becoming the term 'Beaters', the four of them, that being Kirito, Asuna, Yuuki and Alex, had rented an inn room for themselves away from the other players, who were quickly spilling onto the new floor. The inn room was rather rudimentary, all things considered. It had 4 beds, a bathroom, a large-ish table and 4 chairs with said table. The bathroom, of course, had a bath, a fact that Asuna was taking full advantage of.

"500 Col, 500 more Col."

Kirito sighed for the second time, but handed over the money anyway with a brief sigh of _my wallet._

Argo accepted the money greedily and spoke. "To tell you four about the second floor bosses, and because your door was open." She grinned even wider.

Kirito berated himself. _Damn_ , he was 500 Col short all for a simple witty response. Just like the Beta. _So_ much like the Beta.

"Why are you telling us about the floor boss for free?" Alex asked, "You never give info for free."

Argo nodded. "I never said anything about giving it to you for free, I have a reputation to maintain, being the best info-broker and all..."

"And clearly very modest about the fact."

Argo smirked. "Indeed, but since Ki-bou is one of my most reliant customers, I've decided to give discounts to your group. So what info would you like about the field boss?"

"Field boss? There's a field boss that's separate from the main boss?"

Kirito and Argo, as well as Yuuki stared at Alex, unsure how to respond.

"Did you read ANYTHING before entering the game?" Kirito asked, disbelievingly.

Alex looked at the three of them. He then shrugged. "Nah, I just decided to wing it..."

Argo looked away. "Unbelievable..."

Yuuki giggled and walked to sit on one of the chairs by the table, declared _Her chair_ when they first walked into the room 3 days prior. She turned and spoke to him. "Do you wing everything by chance?"

Alex thought for a moment, then nodded his head proudly. "Yeah, most things."

It just happened that at that moment, Asuna walked out the bathroom, wearing her usual clothes. They hadn't really changed that much from the boss fight, and she hadn't had the chance to do shopping yet. She also looked a lot calmer than her shout from the bathroom had suggested.

She looked at Alex. "What about most things?"

Yuuki replied. "He wings most things."

"Yeah, I can see that happening."

Kirito coughed and turned back to Argo. "So, about the field boss, is it similar to the Beta? The Bullbous Bow?"

Argo simply held out her hand and gestured towards it, symbolising the obvious transaction to be made. Kirito breathed deeply, and handed more Col to her. Within but a moment, Argo had snatched the money and placed it in her inventory with a smile.

She smiled. "Yes, its the same exact boss as far as I've seen. People are talking about defeating it on the 9th. You remember the strategy on defeating it, Ki-bou?"

Kirito nodded to her.

"Good, then my work here is done." She turned and left the Inn room, leaving the 4 to ponder.

Alex broke the silence first. "So, what is this 'Bullbous Bow'? It sounds," he paused, "Intriguing."

Kirito smirked at Alex's attempt to sound posh, and responded. "Its a huge bull that charges at anything it sees with a huge temper."

"So any tips to not get rammed."

Kirito grinned. "Get the hell out of its way."

"Do we attack it on its sides?" That was Yuuki.

"Yeah, the sides or on top, though I wouldn't recommend it. It took us 3 attempts to defeat it in the Beta."

Yuuki nodded, deep in thought. Asuna spoke up. "What about the others, we aren't exactly the most popular people around, especially after what Alex said in the floor one boss room, and what you said there as well. There might be tensions, and we don't want a fight."

"There shouldn't be a fight, we won't provoke anyone." Kirito stated.

"But if there is a fig-" She was interrupted by Alex.

"We'll fight and defend ourselves with due force."

Asuna was quiet for a moment, then nodded, seemingly accepting the answer.

Kirito looked around back at the group. "Well, we've got 2 days to train, so lets prepare the best we can."

* * *

Location: Urbus, approaching Floor 2 boss room, Floor 2 (Timeline SAO)

Date: Saturday 10th December 2022 9:30 am (Local time)

It was a bright virtual day in the fields of the second floor. The day of the boss battle had arrived, and the main force was marching to where several scouts (some from Kibaou and some from Lind's group, a result of a hasty compromise) had stated to have seen the boss.

Up in front was Lind and Kibaou, flanked by their most loyal members and their groups, behind them was the mass of other players armed with weapons, ranging from good to absolutely crap, all in groups with each other, and all chatting about various stuff.

And at the back was the 'Beater' group, as the other players had so eloquently put it. The other players had derided this group, but they came along anyway. Within this group, they were chatting, or rather, one was complaining…

"How long till we get there? I'm getting tired." groaned Alex. Kirito turned and stared at him.

"The town of Urbus, where our inn room was, is literally 700 metres in THAT DIRECTION." He gestured towards the town behind him. "You have only walked for about 5 minutes, if that, you are not tired!"

"But Yuuki woke me up incredibly early, and I didn't get much sleep."

"Yuuki woke you up at 9, we were all awake at that time, you just slept in, now stop complaining. You need all the energy you can get for the boss fight."

"Which leads us back in a loop to my question, how long till we get there?"

Kirito sighed. "I think its another 10 minutes, it might be different to the beta though, so I don't know. Anyway, feeling confident?"

Alex, who had been slouching, straightened his back. Then yawned. Only then did he reply. "Yeah, I guess I'm ready. My sword still looks good, durability looks high, and I'm fed somewhat. What about you, Yuuki?" He asked, smiling towards her.

Yuuki grinned and flourished her sword around her. Alex could only look in astonishment at the way she could swing it around her with style. In comparison, all he could do was hit, swing and stab, and several sword skills, not always in that order. After she was finished, Yuuki placed the sword back into her sheath and did a mock bow. Alex in turn clapped.

"I'll take that as good."

Kirito looked to Asuna. "And how about you?"

Asuna looked towards him and nodded. "Yeah, I'm ready."

* * *

Location: Urbus, Floor 2 boss room, Floor 2 (Timeline SAO)

Date: Saturday 10th December 2022 9:45 am (Local time)

The 'Beater' group arrived behind everyone else to the dungeon, which looked like all the other fields they had walked through. What made this dungeon special was that at the far end, was a giant bull. Quickly, the main groups led by Kibaou and Lind sorted into smaller groups and began to discuss attack strategies, leaving the 'Beater' group alone. Discussing strategies, Kirito mused, should have been done before, and not when the boss is on the other side of the area they were in.

The Boss was more-or-less as Kirito had described before, a big bull that looked angry. The group wasn't in the agro area of the Bull yet, and so the name hadn't appeared, nor the health bars, nor the battle music that went along with it all. Most importantly, the Bull wasn't charging at them with the force of a train. Yet.

It took the smaller groups a few minutes to figure out a basic plan, it was subject to change though, and get into positions ready for the start of the boss fight. This was when Kirito spoke up.

"Lind, I thought the battle plan was to co-operate, where are we in this plan?"

Lind Growled. "We don't want the help of you Beaters...Go take out the smaller mobs while we deal with the main boss."

Not wanting to cause a fight, Kirito nodded and walked towards the entrance of the field. Alex, Yuuki and Asuna followed him.

"We'll get involved later, I want to see how well they fight first."

Alex grinned. "Bets on how long they fight before we go in."

"You're on, 50 Col for 5 minutes or less."

"Agreed."

As the bet was being established, Lind was finishing his morale boosting speech to the troops who turned up.

"- and we will be VICTORIOUS!"

Kirito leaned over to Asuna. "What was he saying?" Asuna hit him.

"If you weren't throwing money around and had listened, then perhaps you would have known. I'm not telling you." She folded her arms and humphed. Kirito turned towards the other groups, and Lind, after sighing once more.

Lind and Kibaou looked towards the Bull, and their groups. They began to move towards the Bull slowly. It turned and looked towards them. Two Health Bars appeared. The Name "Bullbous Bow" appeared above its head.

It kicked up some dirt with its feet.

It snorted in rage at the Groups.

And it Charged.


End file.
